Chaos, Order and Balance
by SoulEnder
Summary: The Ancient Walkers foretold of three heroes who would save the world and bring peace and balance. However one of the three heroes has fallen and now their future purpose is uncertain. Between dealing with loss and multiple threats from both outside and within, can the heroes left behind prevail? Or will they die trying? (All Couplings Secret) Rated M for Death, Violence, Sexuality
1. Hero's Funeral

**All Sonic Characters are trademarks of Sega and Archie Comics. I do not claim to own rights to any of these characters.**

"**Speaking aloud"**

'**Internal Monologue'**

***Electrical Transmissions***

**If you enjoy the story as you read, let me know what you think. No point in posting new chapters if nobody's enjoying the story. R&R**

Chapter 1: Hero's Funeral

"We are gathered here today…"

'Why is this happening?'

"To honor the selfless sacrifice of a great hero of Mobius…"

'Why is this happening again?'

"And it is with a heavy heart that, that I… t-that I…"

"Sally… I… let me—"

"No!... no Sonic, I'm okay, please." Sally gestures for Sonic to retake his seat; unsure if he should or not, he listens to the princess and walks back over and sits in his chair, an obviously worried look clouding his face.

"Knuckles was a man who believed in peace, who fought for change… a man who died saving the lives of everyone assembled here today. …Knuckles has already died twice before now. T-this time however… he didn't have access to his chaos abilities like before… and the Ancient Walkers are gone, …and with them any hope we might have had… for another miracle."

The tears Sally had been choking back now begin to pour down her face, her breath catching now even more than before. The crowd of mourners faces growing heavier at the momentary outburst of the princess.

"I'm sorry,… Knuckles was a man of utmost loyalty, a guardian not only of his own people but all the peoples of Mobius, and as true a friend as could be had." Sally Pauses again clutching the fur over her heart and sobbing under her breath. "He was taken from us well before his time, and his passing… is truly a loss for our entire world. We will never forget him… or what he's d-done for us." Sally covers her face with her hand as she steps down trying to hide her tears.

Sonic moves to the podium with a solemn face. "Rad Red an I didn't hit it off so well when we first met. And even after we sorted out the misunderstanding we still pretty much fought whenever we got the chance. Was so bad one time we actually imploded an entire zone knocking each other all over the place." Sonic said with a smile and his eye closed remembering his friend. Sonic's mirth bringing slight tear filled smiles to the crowd. "We had at each other but we became good buds. I knew if he was at my back we could take anyone. I'll miss him for sure, but I know that he's watchin over us and I'm gonna do all I can to live up to his example." Sonic steps down with a sad smile painted on his face trying to keep spirits high.

One after another the Chaotix and Freedom Fighters spoke as well as a few G.U.N. representatives; even King Elias came forward to say a few words to honor the man who had saved Mobius from Robotnik's World Ender Missile. All of New Mobotropolis and more were in attendance, but no one from Albion had come, they all held fast to the expected return of their Avatar. No one wanted to argue with their belief because secretly everyone hoped they were right.

Throughout the service, all had shed tears and felt that weight of Knuckles loss, yet one has yet to cry. Julie-Su had barely reacted to anything since her outcry at Knuckles reflexive self-sacrifice. Since that day she has barely slept or eaten and just stares with her half seeing eyes as if she has lost the will to live. The Chaotix have tried to console her but she wouldn't respond to them. Even Sonic had tried and failed. Now the service was coming to a close and all stood to hear the song Mina had composed to commemorate the life of the fallen Hero of Mobius.

Sally was half listening to the song; she had been crying off and on during the service and was trying to compose herself when she saw Julie-Su's catatonic like state. For a moment she just watched her not knowing what she could do for her, then without a word or thought Sally walked over and embraced the unresponsive Echidna. Sally's own tears started flowing again as the almost limp mass in her arms began to enfold her own around Sally. Julie-Su Cried inaudibly unto the shoulder of her friend as their sobs were drown out by Mina's heart felt song.

As The song ended and everyone got ready to return home the Chaotix made ready the warp ring to head back to Angel Island to guard it and the Master Emerald as Knuckles would have wanted them to.

"Jules, you coming with us or…" Mighty trailed off knowing that she wasn't going to voice an answer and that even if she did, she likely didn't want to go back to the island right now. Not with all those memories, not so soon after his death.

"It's okay, she can stay with us for now; I'll look after her until she starts feeling like her old self again." Sally smiled as she said this trying to hide her own insecurity on the matter. She draped an arm around Julie-Su rubbing her shoulder sympathetically.

"Thank you Princess." Espio said in a down cast but clear voice. "She may be better off with you for now."

"Keep us posted, we'll be in touch." Vector said as he stepped through the portal, almost not being able to get away fast enough.

"What's his problem?" Sonic spat

"Don't get him wrong, Vec is more emotional than he seems, he just doesn't want to be seen crying in front of anyone else."

"Mighty's r-r-right, I d-don't think he m-m-meant to be c-c-c-c-cold" Ray's words spoken in a low voice.

"I understand. Well, bye for now."

"Yeah, later guy's." With that Mighty and the rest of the Chaotix leave and Sally walk's Julie-Su towards the castle accompanied by Sonic. After Sally says good bye to Sonic, she leads Julie-Su to one of the guest rooms down the hall from her own that she will be using for the duration of her stay.

"This will be your room while you're here. My room is just at the end of this hall so if you need me I won't be far away. It's gotten pretty late so you can turn in now if you like. I'll come see how you're doing in the morning." Sally had finished but Julie-Su only just stared with glazed over half lidded eyes. 'I guess I'm not going to get a confirmation one way or the other.' As Sally released Julie-Su and turned to leave, Julie-Su grabbed her hand.

"Please don't leave me." Julie-Su whimpered out, tears returning to her eyes and rushing down the sides of her face.

"Oh honey." Sally sighed as her own tears started welling up again as she pulled Julie-Su in for a hug. "Don't worry, I promise I won't. I'll stay here with you tonight."

Julie-Su nodded once and hugged her tighter, as if Sally might disappear at any moment. After she had calmed down a bit, Sally Helped Julie-Su get ready for bed. As the two lay down, the exhaustion of the past week washed over both of them like a tidal wave and they were fast asleep almost instantly.


	2. More Good News

Chapter 2: More Good News

"Mmm… so tight…" Sally tries to shake off the covers with her lousy amount of morning energy. "Mmmmmm damn it…" She can't move her left arm or leg since the covers are wrapped around her in a weird way. Sighing loudly that she has to open her eyes, she does so to move the blanket and get some circulation back, only to see Julie-Su sound asleep and holding her from the side, one arm under hers curled into her chest, one wrapped around her stomach almost pulling her, and a leg draped over her left leg. The covers were still fairly much on top of them but Sally was wading back into reality and could now feel the difference between her fur and the blanket. Sally looked at her face. She was still so sad, but like this she seemed almost content in a way. 'Well as cute and as strangely comfy as her vice grip is, I need to get free so I might be able to feel my left side sometime this week.' The thought would have made her chuckle a week ago but now, all she could think about was that Knuckles was gone, and they still had Robotnik to contend with. 'After all that's happened, after all the time and pain and loss… Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I should have listened to the brotherhood when they said that we should attack Robotnik with deadly force. With the help of the Guardians and their advanced technologies, we could have stopped Robotnik once and for all by now. Then Knuckles wouldn't have—'

"Sally" Nicole appeared. "Rotor is calling a meeting for you and the others to discuss Robotnik's W.E.M. weapon."

"Okay, I'll be right there, I just have to leave a note for Jules so she knows where I am. I'd rather bring her so she's not lonely but I think it better that she sleeps as long as she can; besides… I don't think she wants to be at this meeting."

Sally leaves the castle to head for Freedom HQ and finds Sonic waiting for her outside the gates.

"Hey Sal." Sonic gives a quick wave. "So how is she?"

"She's asleep for now. I hope she'll talk to me more when she wakes up."

"She spoke to you?" Sally nods at the question. "That's good news, maybe—"

"It was only once… but hopefully, soon she'll talk to me."

"…So how are you—"

"I think we should get moving or we're going to be late."

Sonic didn't like that she had dodged his question but figured he should leave it at that. "Late? Mwah, late? As if Sal." Sonic said as he scooped her up and bolted toward Knot Hole.

34 seconds later Sonic skidded to a stop. "Late she says, you crack me up Sal."

Sally got down and glared at Sonic as she tried to put her hair back in order.

'Ouch, well mad at me is better than being sad about red for a while.' "Sorry bout that Sal." Sonic said with a big smile. "Well we better head on in." He says as he quickly walks away."

Sally finished fixing her hair. 'Just you wait Sonic Hedgehog, I'll get back for your little prank' she grinned slightly as she walked in.

"Good everyone's here now." Rotor nodded as he started pressing buttons.

"Fastest thing alive and we were still the last to arrive huh Sonic?" Sally said smugly still grinning.

Sonic's face contorts a bit. 'Really ouch.' "So what's the news on that robo junk pile Rote?" He says shifting his gaze.

"Well we have good news for once."

"Really? I thought it was a little too chilly today, Inferno must have frozen over."

"Good one sugar hog." Bunny smiles in agreement.

"Thank you, thank you." He grins as he bows dramatically.

"As I was saying, Tails, Nicole and I have fully combed through Robotnik's missile wreckage and designs and we found out that it had one of the chaos emeralds at the heart of the war head."

"That's good news?" Sonic chimed in.

"Yes, for two reasons. One because now we have four of the five emeralds not in Fiest's special zone, and two since Station Square has the other one, Robotnik isn't likely to build another W.E.M. any time soon" Rotor says knowingly.

"But just in case we had Nicole build a prototype long range magnetic laser to shoot other warheads into space so they detonate far out of harm's way." Tails finished speaking and the room grew silent. This method imitated what Knuckles had done to neutralize the first W.E.M. He had just made it to the edge of Mobius' atmosphere when it detonated.

Sally's eyes began to tear up, as were Amy's when Nicole's proximity alarm blared. But before anyone could react a great blazing light blinded them all from the center of the room.

"Damn! What is it Nicole?" Sonic said out of almost panic.

"Entity unknown. I can't get a straight reading on the energy signature. It is close to that of chaos emeralds and power rings but not exactly like them either. I'm trying to—"

"Chosen One." The deep feminine voice sounded through the slowly fading light, cutting off Nicole's words. "I have come to talk to you about a most grievous matter that can wait no longer."

"Who are you?" Tails asked, unsure of the owner of this female voice.

The light now faded to a dim golden glow. "I am Aurora and I have come before you all today as a representative of the Neo Walkers with news that will be hard for you to accept."

"Aurora? You mean the Goddess Aurora?" Sally almost stammered.

"Yes I am the same Aurora you are thinking of, given my knowledge and power long ago by the Ancient Walkers themselves."

"You said you represent the Neo Walkers, as in new Ancient Walkers?" Tails asked quizzically.

"In a way yes, but unlike our predecessors we are not yet masters over the chaos force. Athair, Merlin and I have debated what to do in the wake of Knuckles death and, though we had many disagreements about what is to be done, I am here now to explain our decision."

"So then please, why are you here?" Sally pleaded her go on as she began growing anxious.

"All ready it is known to the Chosen One and Sonic that they, along with Knuckles were destined to one day use their powers to establish peace on Mobius." Sonic and Tails both nod "What is not yet known are the details of what they truly are. You three were to embody the forces of creation and maintain the balance of the world."

"Woah woah woah, come again your godliness?" Sonic interrupted. "Can you run that by me again in a little more detail if you please?"

"Sonic" Sally almost yelled at him.

"What? I just want to know as much about this mumbo jumbo as I can. I figured trying to know things would make you happy not pissed at me."

"That's not the point, you're being rude."

"It is okay. I will explain in more detail. The Three are beings that represent the forces of creation, chaos and order. It is through these opposed states that life can grow and change. The Chosen Ones purpose is to maintain balance between the two so that life may continue. As the Chosen one is the embodiment of chaos and order in harmony, he must maintain harmony between Knuckles who is the incarnation of chaos and Sonic who is the incarnation of order. If either force is left unchecked by the counter balance the other provides, the world will be destroyed by which ever gains dominance. Now that Knuckles has passed into the After World, the balance is broken and order shall stagnate and eventually purify the world."

"How is purifying a bad thing? So what if we stop changing? We're fine how we are. True things might get boring but—"

"You do not understand Sonic. Stagnation will mean that only those already born will be able to procreate, and after that all will die out… if life survives that long."

"What do you mean if we survive that long?" Sally asked dread apparent on her face.

"The next time Sonic enters his super state, order shall consume his mind and he will systematically cleanse the world of all imperfect sentient life forms as well as any other being with consciousness to achieve ultimate peace."

At these words everyone was stunned into silence. Not knowing what to say or think after having heard the foretelling of such devastation.

"…How can we stop this?" Tails' thoughts escaping his mouth as he looks up at Aurora.

"Balance must be restored. To do this, both chaos and order must both be on the same plain of reality."

"So how do we help you bring Knuckles back?" Sally face brightened at Tails' notion of Knuckles returning to life. "That's why you came to see us right? You need us to participate in whatever ritual you guys are setting up to pull him back to our world right?"

All faces in the room began to grow more encouraged at the thought of the lost hero's return. The joy was short lived though as the goddess Aurora's face remained solemn.

"I am sorry. But we do not have the power to return Knuckles to this plane as the Ancient Walkers may have. In order to restore balance, the Chosen One must send Sonic to join Knuckles in the After World."

"WHAT!" All present yelled in unison.


	3. Making Choices

Chapter 3: Making Choices

"…What do you mean?... You want me to kill Sonic?" Tails' face flashed with anger, "How can that be your answer!?"

"I know that what we ask is harsh but it is—"

"Noooooooo! You can't kill Sonic!" Amy runs over and hugs Sonic. "You can't kill him… you just can't." Tears raining from her face as she tightens her grip.

"We won't. We refuse to let anyone else die!" Sally said as if commanding her to leave.

"I doubt this is the only way, and uncle Merlin and Athair wouldn't agree with this plan even if it was!"

"Young Miles, you are correct that Athair did not consent to this plan. He still holds out faith that Knuckles will find a way back to this world as he did before, but we do not know if that is even a possibility or not without access to his higher level chaos abilities; and as such Merlin has sided with me on this matter. Though neither of us wants this to happen, it must be done. Sonic himself knows my words to be true, which is why he has not protested so far." All eyes turn to Sonic in confusion and shock. "He has remembered his trip into space, how he and his super form were separated by the red chaos emeralds; what order is truly like when he has no control over it."

"Sonic? What is she talking about?" Tails asked concerned.

"When I was lost in space after the Xorde attack, I tried to change into super mode with the red emeralds I found on the planet I ended up on. But instead of me changing, we were separated. After that it went crazy and even tried to kill me; almost did too." Sonic finished with obvious distress.

"It is as Sonic says, if order should break free of his will, than all life is in terrible danger. I am sorry but it is the only way."

"That's enough! I won't listen to this anymore. I can't believe you have the nerve to come down here, right after Knuckles funeral, and ask me to kill my best friend and tell me it's the only way! When Knuckles died before this was never an issue; why is it that now we have to deal with this great crisis? Huh? Tell me you're reasoning there."

"When Knuckles destroyed himself to stop Mogul from gaining his powers, the Ancient Walkers knew that Knuckles would return to life and balance would again be restored. At the time, I simply thought that the Xorde's Genocide device would bring you and Sonic to the After World."

"Yeah, along with everyone else on the planet right? You didn't expect us to survive then and you don't have faith in us now."

"It is true that I had misunderstood the Ancient Walkers intentions. However, sending Sonic to the afterlife is the only way Mobius will be guaranteed survival."

"I'm not murdering my friend!"

"And if you cannot find another way? Or your attempts lead to the deaths of countless others? What will you do then Chosen One?"

"Don't I get a say in this!?" All eyes returned to Sonic. "You guys seem to forget that I'm standing right here. I don't know if I'm gonna go bonkers at any minute or not but I vote for a stay of execution. We need time to try and find another way Aurora, and I'm not just saying that to avoid biting the big one, though it's definitely a plus. And if we can't find another way or I change before we do, than my little bro will just have to do his job right?"

"Sonic." Everyone in the room was silent and Tails' utterance was barely audible. Amy continued to cry but had let go of Sonic in fear of his words.

"Hey now, don't you guys go giving me that look. I'm not calling it quits just yet. I have faith that we'll make it through this without yours truly pushin up daisies, but I'm just covering my bases. That work for you Aurora? We try to find a loop hole in this mess; if we can't then we'll go with plan B."

Aurora was uncertain that this would end well, but she had underestimated their will to survive before. She nodded her consent. "You are right. It only stands fair that for all your heroism in life, that you be given a chance to avert your fate. You are granted time on the condition that the Chosen One agrees to the terms as well. That if this endeavor should prove fruitless, he will carry out his duty and restore balance."

"Well? What do you say little bro, you in?' Sonic finished with a big smile.

Tails' paused for a moment than said, "All right I'll agree to your terms, but it won't come to that. I won't let it."

"Then we are agreed. If you should find a way and require our assistance, we will do what we can to help from our side. Until then I bit you all fair well." And with that Aurora vanished in an instant flash of light.

"Well, this is what I get for making fun of the good news."

"This isn't a joke Sonic."

"Sally's right darlin, this ain't no laughin matter."

"Wee, we mus find a way out of zis mess, not to be making ze jokes my frien."

"Okay okay, keep your shirts on, for those of you who have um."

Amy squeezes Sonic again. "You're not gonna die, right Sonic?"

Sonic looked down into her tear stained eyes. "Don't worry Amy, nobody else is gonna die." He smiled only lightly as he petted her head. 'Now I just gotta figure out how to make myself not look like a liar.'

"Okay everyone, I think we need to recess until tomorrow to figure out how to deal with our latest problem. Hopefully once we calm down a little we can brainstorm our next move." Rotor said as he turned to look at Nicole. "Keep monitoring New Megaopolis. We can't afford to ignore Robotnik but this takes priority. Still let me know if you notice anything suspicious."

"Understood." Nicole than began turning off screens and going about her business.

Antoine and Bunny were first to head out followed by Rotor. Amy refused to let go of Sonic so he said he'd take her home and try to calm her down. He waved to Tails and Sally as he zipped off with Amy.

"Tails, are you coming?" Sally asked worried about all the pressure that had just been heaped on his shoulders.

"Yeah in a little bit, I'm gonna stay here for a bit to think."

Sally could see how down caste he was. 'I wish I knew what to do to help him.' "Don't think you have to do this all by yourself."

"I'm okay." Tails flashed a halfhearted smile. "You should go check on Julie-Su. She needs you more."

Sally just nodded as she turned to head for Acorn Castle. After she had arrived back at the castle she first headed to get something to eat for she and Julie-Su, after which she went to the guest room. 'I hope she'll eat… Also hope she'll say more than two words to me. After Knuckles…' Tears begin to well up. 'And now we might lose Sonic too.' She opens the door to see Julie-Su sitting by the window. "Jules, you hungry, I brought us lunch."

"I'm not really hungry."

Sally almost cried just hearing her speak. "Will you eat with me anyway… please? I don't want to eat alone. And I'm worried about your health. You've barely touched food in days." Sally walked over and hugged her friend. "Please?"

Julie-Su nodded and the two sat and picked at their plates, eating as much as they could stomach.

'She seems to be doing better. If she finds out about what happened today though I don't think it will last. But I don't want her to hear it from somebody else.' "Maybe I should tell her."

"Tell me what?" Julie-Su asked a look of confusion on her already almost indifferent face.

'Crap that slipped out! What should I say?'

"Something else happened didn't it?"

Sally couldn't find the words.

"It's okay." Julie-Su smiled to try and encourage her friend, though it didn't look as sincere as she had wanted it too.

Sally took a deep breath to help her collect her thoughts and then began explaining about Aurora's visit what she had said about maintaining balance and the boy's roles in everything; and the agreement they reached.

"Now poor Tails may have to kill Sonic."

"That's horrible. You must be taking this hard too since you guys are so close."

"Yeah it's not something I like to think about since we've been friends for so long. Even though we aren't together anymore, I can't stand to wait around knowing he might disappear like…" Sally stopped herself knowing that what she was going to say was already evident to Julie-Su.

"…You had feelings for him didn't you?"

Sally's expression turned from pain to guilt giving no answer.

"You don't have to hold it back; I'm not going to get mad at you."

"…Thanks. You guys were so perfect for each other. I had my chance with him and… I never did anything about it. Then when he… passed on I just felt so empty, so lost."

Julie-Su got up and walked around behind Sally's chair and draped her arms around her, holding her gently. "Even while you were feeling so much pain, you held yourself together to take care of me this last week. But you don't have to face these feelings alone anymore. I'm here for you too, and I don't know how yet but we'll save Sonic too.

Sally turned to look at Julie-Su, tears streaming slowly down her friends face. She smiled as she moved her hands up to wipe away the teary streaks on the sides of her face, and then she leaned in kissing her. Julie-Su's eyes shot open not knowing how to react. All she could think to do was let it happen. After Sally had ended the kiss her eyes opened wide as she realized what she'd done. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me." Sally got up out of her chair in a panic and turned away. 'I can't believe I just kissed her like that. She probably thinks I'm nuts. What can I say to—'

Julie-Su grabbed her shoulders and turned her around almost forcefully; and then pulled her into a hug. "It's alright…You just surprised me. I didn't know you had such… complex feelings for me." Julie-Su finished still sounding a little shaken.

"I'm not even sure why I did that. Please don't be mad at me."

"If I was mad at you we'd be fighting right now not hugging. You did scare me though."

"I scared me too."

"Glad it wasn't just me, or this hug would be sending pretty mixed signals." A mischievous smile came across Julie-Su's face as she broke off from the hug. "So, I'm not gonna wake up tied to the bed one day right?"

Sally gasped into a smile. "You bitch."

"Just asking, since we seem to have gone from being girl friends to girlfriends." She smiled impishly.

"…Well, if I try to rape you you'll be the first to know." Sally smiles back in earnest as the two look at each other for a second and burst into laughter.


	4. The Red Moon and the Chosen One

Chapter 4: The Red Moon and the Chosen One

Sally quickly surveys her surroundings. 'Okay… where on Mobius am I? It looks like the great forest almost, but the stars don't match what should be overhead. It's also a little off putting that I have no clue how I got out here. Well it doesn't look like I'm in any trouble yet, but sitting around here waiting in the dark isn't going to get me anywhere either. Guess I'll head north and hope to find some information on this place.' Sally began walking through the thick brush trying not to get snagged on the branches when things seemed to grow darker around her, but she pressed on hoping things would be brighter once she hit a clearing. Finally she found the end of the thicket and looked around to notice everything was darker than she'd expected; everything around her and she herself was bathed in a strange red glow. She began looking for the source of the light. Her pulse grew quicker as if warning her of some impending danger as it made ready to flee. She then finds that the source of the eerie red light is coming from the moon. 'I've never seen a moon like that before. What is going on here?'

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" The loud scream is followed by a gigantic boom that knocks Sally almost back into the brush. As she sits up grabbing her head reflexively after the impact, her eyes go wide as she sees the newly formed crater next to where she had been standing. Slowly on shaky legs she moves over to the crater to notice what looks like a cape covering something in the center. She wades down into the hole making her way closer to the lump of cloth and the small form of who is wearing it.

"Tails… TAILS!" She rushes over to him in a panic lifting his motionless form into her arms as she places a hand on his neck trying to find a pulse. However she freezes as they are both covered by a shadow. The sudden blotting of the moon draws her attention to the sky as a cloaked figure motions an arm down at them and then everything is lost in a foul light.

Sally startles from her sleep and looks around in a panic. '…It was a dream? No, nightmares more like it. What was going on? Who was that? And why was he… poor Tails. No. It was just a bad dream. Not too hard to understand considering what's been going on recently.' She looks at herself and her pillow. 'Uhg, I'm covered in sweat. I may as well go get cleaned up.' Sally notices the clock by her bed. "It's only three in the morning?" 'Great, looks like I'll be up with my thoughts for a while. Doubt I can get back to sleep after that.'

As Sally wakes from her nightmare, Sonic is laying in his bed unable to find sleep. 'Okay since sleep ain't working maybe I'll go out for a run. At least I might be able to tire myself out and get my mind off this whole go crazy and kill all your friends deal.' Sonic jumped out of bed and into his sneakers. Then he opened his window and took off for the Great Forest. As he ran he let everything not in front of him blur by. He knows that right now all he can do is stay calm and wait but waiting has always driven him crazy. All he wants to do for the next five hours is distract himself.

"Tails, you have been here for hours. You need to rest or you're going to collapse."

"I'm alright Nicole; I'm almost done with this limiter ring. Knowing Sonic he's not going to sleep now after hearing he might kill everyone on Mobius. I figure with this, maybe we can at least put those fears to rest long enough for him to get some rest himself." Nicole's looking at Tails' bloodshot eyes as he works on the small device, concern growing on her face. Tails feels her gaze and looks over to her with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. I promise that once I finish this I'll rest on one of the beds here until tomorrow's strategy meeting okay." Nicole only nodded slightly in reply as Tails resumed his work.

On this restless morning, everyone is having trouble sleeping except for the most unlikely dreamer. In an open field under a single great tree sits an Echidna, fur as red as blood in its shadow; in his arms his beloved mate. Their souls resonate like a warm gentle vibration in their chests through the power of the soul touch. A feeling she has not felt in what seems like a life time, now flaring continuously in the arms of the man she feared would never return. And like that she realizes. "This is a dream. This isn't real."

"You're half right." Knuckles responded as he tightened his embrace. "This is a dream, and I'm still on the other side. But I am real. Athair has filled me in on what's been happening over there and I have an idea how I can get back." Julie-Su's eyes met with his, those deep confident amethyst eyes. Eyes that said don't be afraid, I'm not going to let anything hurt you or our friends. As if beyond her control she placed her hands on his cheeks and drew him into a kiss, not wanting to wake up from this dream or move from under this tree.

"So then what happened?" Sally asked, eyes almost glowing in anticipation as Julie-Su's narration seemed to trail off.

"… Uh, he told me about his plan but said I should wait to find Tails and get everyone together before discussing the details." She beamed with joy. This was not the girl whose violet eyes only yesterday said she was dead to the world. Just looking at how much happier she seemed was enough to make Sally smile.

"I get the feeling you skipped a juicy bit but that's okay, I get the picture." Sally grinned at the blush spreading on Julie-Su's face, but then sighed, "I wish I'd had a dream like yours rather than the nightmare I had last night."

"I bet you would." Julie-Su smiled knowingly. "So what happened in your nightmare?"

Sally explains how she had found herself in some strange woods at night. About the red moon and the creepy way it tinted everything dark. About Tails and the unknown figured that was about to do something when she had finally managed to wake up.

"What do you think it mean's?" Julie-Su asked looking worried now.

"Hopefully that something I ate at dinner last night upset my stomach."

With that the two had arrived at Freedom HQ for the strategy meeting. Everyone was already here waiting except for Tails who Nicole explained was resting after pulling an all-nighter. Now that everyone had arrived she said she would go wake him.

From the moment Julie-Su had arrived everyone had been looking from her to Sally as if asking what she was thinking. Julie-Su noticing and said, "Guys, I'm okay. I'm up to speed on what been going on too." With that her expression became a little gloomier but still she seemed happy.

Everyone was kind of confused but then again they were just glad that she was speaking again. After a few minutes Tails entered the room and Nicole reappeared. Everyone was a little happier knowing that Tails had managed to get some sleep after yesterday.

"Okay, now that we're here we can begin." Rotor announced. "First we need to decide what we can do to keep Sonic his true blue self. I have an idea, but I don't know how much it'll help."

"What's the plan Rote man?" Sonic asked hoping for some good news.

"Well, since you need chaos energy to change into your super form, I figured that the best thing we could do would be to have Nicole move the emeralds we already have into a lead lined vault and bury them about a hundred meters down so that we don't have to worry about them affecting you. As for the ambient chaos energy around Mobius… well I'm not sure yet."

"I think this should solve that problem." All eyes turn to the small ring in Tails' hand. "With this Sonic's natural absorption of chaos energy should be stopped. Since Sonic's one billionth ring, he's been emitting the same aura as the power rings. With that in mind, I made this to reverse the polarity of his aura so that instead of drawing in chaos energy he repels it. As long as he isn't exposed to high concentrations of it, he shouldn't have to worry about changing." As he finished the little fox smiled a sleepy smile.

Sonic bolted over, put on the ring that Tails had been holding out in his hand, and hoisted Tails into a hug giving him a playfully nuggie all in one Sonic second. "That's my little bro, savin the day like a champ."

Tails blushed as everyone around him smiled on as Sonic praised him.

"Sally." Nicole calling for her attention and getting everyone else's as things settled back into the meeting. "I need your clearance to move the chaos emeralds."

"You got it."

"Okay, I'll begin transferring their containment vessel and moving them now." Nicole finished and disappeared

"While Nicole works on that, and now that we don't have to worry about Sonic changing into a homicidal maniac at the moment. What can we do about the long term problem?" Rotor recalled everyone's attention to the second problem. The cheer in the room darkened, but Sally and Julie-Su seemed unfazed by the question. Noticing this, all eyes were on them; even Nicole was observing them intently despite her endeavor. Tails was just now realizing that Julie-Su was present and felt like he had missed something.

"Ya'll girls seem privy to somethin yer not lettin on about." Bunny smirked.

"You guys really know how to save Sonic, really!?" Amy almost squealed.

Julie-Su nodded, "Knuckles came to me in my dreams last night and told me how we can bring him back."

"Among other things." Sally added with a big grin.

Julie-Su blushed at the comment and pinched her.

"Ouch." Sally winced as she kept her playful grin.

"Shush you big blab."

None of the guys in the room had made it past bringing Knuckles back and were waiting for details. Bunny, Amy and Nicole just giggle to themselves as they guessed at Sally's meaning.

"Knuckles said that he can open the door from his side but that the way he is now, he can't channel the amount of chaos energy he needs even with the Neo walkers help. To gather the chaos energy he needs on his side, Athair suggested that Tails use the Master Emerald to transform and then he can use his power to channel the energy to Knuckles. He said that all Tails should need to do is focus on him in the After World and he should have enough to return."

"That could work. Turbo Tails can tap into the chaos force directly. Theoretically I should be able to send it to Knuckle on the other side through that." Tails grinned at finally having a plan of action. Not only could he save Sonic, but Knuckles would come back too.

"I got an idea." Sonic added.

"Today is just full of surprises." Sally joked.

"Haha Sal. Anyway, what I was gonna say before I was so rudely interrupted, was how I heard a whole lot a should's. So I was thinkin we give the Faker a ring at G.U.N. He can do that whole chaos force mojo too right? So we clue him in and he helps Tails channel the door juice over to Knux and boom, happy ending."

"That's actually a good idea."

"What's this actually biz?" Sonic gave a half frown.

Sally just ignored him and continued "Even if Tails should be able to handle it alone, having Shadow help couldn't hurt. Nicole. When you finish moving the emeralds please secure lines with Angel Island and G.U.N. I do believe we've got ourselves a plan." 'And I'll get to see him again.'


	5. A Three Day Wait

Chapter 5: A Three Day Wait and a Surprising Suggestion

Sally had contacted the Chaotix and G.U.N. and explained the majority of what was going on. The Chaotix had mixed reactions considering the possible end of the world scenario. But then they had seen a few of those come and go already and were more than happy to know that Knuckles was coming back. G.U.N. on the other hand was more concern with Sonic turning into a genocide weapon. With little convincing, they had assigned Team Dark to assist them with averting this crisis, but they would have to wait on account that they had yet to return from their current mission; and that it would take three days, including today, for them to complete their objectives, return, and be dispatched to New Mobotropolis. When Sally asked what they were doing, all they would tell her is that they were taking measures against Robotnik.

As Sally bid farewell to the representative from G.U.N. she turned to the Chaotix. "Once Shadow arrives here, we'll contact you again so you guys can open up the warp ring. It's annoying to have to wait another three days but it's a safer bet to wait for Shadow and Team Dark in case something should go wrong." Sally had said that without realizing as she recalled her dream from last night. She didn't want Tails to act alone because of the thought of the cloaked figure looming over them. Only Julie-Su took notice of her concern and made anything of it, but to avoid any hysterics she would remain silent in front of the others.

"Okay Sally, keep us posted." Mighty finish still smiling from the good news.

"Freedom HQ out." Sally waited for Nicole to close the transmission and then turned to see everyone waiting for their orders. "As for us, since we have to wait three days anyway we may as—"

"Why wait the three days? We don't need Shadow to do this." Tails spoke up impatiently. "Athair said I could do this. We could go and get Knuckles back right now."

Sally was struck silent not knowing how to answer, the thought of reviving Knuckles today weighed on her.

"We shouldn't tempt fate." Everyone turned to Julie-Su. "We should be as prepared as we can be so we're ready if things don't go like we planned. Any extra precautions we can make we should." She frowned slightly at her own words.

"I thought you'd be on my side with this. What if waiting these three days is more time than we have? What if Sonic changes before that? "

"When Knuckles died before," She paused as this was far from her favorite subject. "He was gone for months and things were fine. You guys didn't even know he had died until he came back."

"But you want him back even more than we do… so why?"

She smiled. "Because this time I know he'll be back. I can wait three more days."

Tails was obviously disappointed to have to wait, but decided to listen to Julie-Su's advice. Sally was happy that she hadn't been forced to give a reason why she had wanted to wait. A part of her was a little sad that she hadn't adopted Tails' reasoning but she knew that it was better to be cautious. "Now that that's settled, I think we could all use some R&R. Since we know that Sonic's safe and Knuckles is as good as back home, we might actually manage to sleep tonight. Nicole, please run scans on New Megaopolis the best you can for the next three days. If G.U.N. is doing something over there, we should be ready just in case Robotnik decides to react. In three days we will meet back here to make for Angel Island." With that Sally waved over Julie-Su and they left for the castle as the others talked amongst them self about the new developments.

"Thank you for stepping in back there. I wasn't sure what I could say to him."

"It's okay. Besides, everything I said was true. With the emeralds sealed and Tails' ring, Sonic should be fine. But you know, you really should tell him about your dream. If it's worrying you so much then he should know so he's ready if anything does go wrong."

"I know you're right, I'll tell him about it before we leave for Angel Island. I can at least he can relax until then. And speaking of telling people things, hearing you bring up the last time with Knuckles reminded me, that you guys opted not to tell us about it. I'm still mad at you for that."

"I already said I was sorry for not telling you. You know that I would have if I could. But if word got off the island that Knuckles wasn't around anymore as a deterrent, anyone who knew about the Master Emerald would have come trying to steal it, especially Robotnik. And believe me, it was crazy enough up there already since Knuckles didn't have any heirs. I thought the people in Echidnopolis didn't like me much when they found out a former Dark Legionnaire was on the arm of their Guardian. You should have seen how pissed they were when he was gone and I hadn't been knocked up."

"I know you had you're reasons, and it sounds like you had enough on your plate… It just hurt that my oldest friend died and I only found out after my, then boyfriend, Sonic seemingly dies saving the planet. Saying I was damaged goods for most of that year would be putting it mildly. If not for you two and the Chaotix helping out when Sonic vanished, we'd all probably be dead or worse right now; at the very least I'd have lost my mind without you. And I know what its cost your people, for Knuckles to have stayed to help protect us." Sally almost brought herself to tears remembering it all, the lives that had been lost.

Julie-Su gave her a hug. "Okay, no more bad memories. Knuckles will be back in three days so no more crying. And besides, you need to figure out what you're going to do."

Sally broke of the hug looking confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well you've got feelings for him right?"

"Well… yeah, but he's with you. And you guys are soul mates. How could I compete with that? And why would you even want me too?"

"You said compete, not me. And I'll admit I'm not crazy about the idea but, I understand how you must feel pushing those feelings down. I did that at first too when I felt the soul touch. I didn't understand what was happening. It didn't make sense that I was supposed to be with someone I was raised my whole life to hate. I pushed down those feelings and they just escaped anyway."

"But that still doesn't explain why you're encouraging me to act on them, especially when they would make me a rival for his affection… Or are you so certain that he wouldn't choose me." Sally's eyes fell to the ground at the thought.

"What!?" Julie-Su face palmed. "You goof. That's not what I mean."

"Then why?"

"Look, in the Dark Legion it wasn't uncommon to have half brothers and sisters, either because of deaths or the closest thing we had to divorce. And it wasn't unheard of for there to be even couplings between more than two people at times."

"Wait… so you mean you want us to both be with him? That sounds ridiculous. Is that even possible? And what about marriage?"

"Well thanks. I wasn't self-conscious enough when I brought it up. But now I'm doing great." Julie-Su says looking a little irritated.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to insult you. It's just a lot to take in you know."

"Well I was only suggesting the possibility. From what I can tell Echidna's don't recognize polygamous relationships anymore. Not that it was ever very common in the Twilight Cage either."

"And if you couldn't tell by my reaction, we don't use it much here either."

Julie-Su smiled. "Oh is that what that was about just now? Nope, you concealed it really well."

"Ha ha. So if we did end up sharing him, how do you think he'd take it? If he was like any other guy, just bringing it up would probably make him wet himself. But considering Knuckles personality, I don't know what he'd say."

"That's actually most likely to be the hardest part. I don't know how he'll react either. It took him a while just to be less shy about our relationship; and even then I didn't see a lot of change until he rose from the dead."

"…So you think when he gets back this time he'll be up for a threesome?" Sally said with a playful grin.

"Alright first off, keep it in your pants princess."

"Not wearing any but go head."

"Smart ass." Sally pokes out her tongue at the comment. "And secondly I think we should keep moving. I'm surprised none of the others have caught up to us by now. We can talk about this more later, preferably after we eat."

"I could eat."


	6. A Day Early, All Out War on Angel Island

Chapter 6: A Day Early, All Out War on Angel Island

-**Somewhere in the Great Forest, 2:47 PM**-

'Well this just figures! It's day two, and instead of eating chilidogs I keep almost eating pavement, while I fight for my life against these upgraded metal monstrosities.' Sonic darts out of the way of a tree that comes hurling at him like a missile on steroids while racing alongside his metal doppelganger; he brakes left. 'Not that they aren't usually nasty but—' "Whoa!" Sonic slices through another thrown tree. 'Normally it's just fake me. And normally when I put them down,' Sonic dodges Metal Sonic's full speed charge and side-kicks it, using its own speed to send it part way through a mountain. 'They stay down. But today, no matter how many times I break um; they just keep getting back up.' Metal Sonic pulls itself from the crater in the mountain as its body regenerates. Sonic watches for a moment as he catches his breath. Only a few seconds of rest for the weary however as another projectile comes flying through the air at him, this time it's a large piece of the ground that is braking off into other smaller bundles of hurt. Sonic is forced to begin running again, the restored Metal Sonic in hot pursuit. As the two run moving left and right, avoiding the falling hazards Sonic can't help but chuckle under his breath. 'To think an hour ago I said I could keep this up all day. Man, if I wore pants I'd be in trouble. And damn that Faker for stirring up Buttnik before we revived Knuckles; as if we weren't in enough trouble that he had to lead more to our doorsteps. Now I only hope I can by enough time for the cavalry to arrive.' Metal Sonic catches up sending him flying with a left. Sonic spins and saws through the tree to avoid impact and keeps moving.

-**New Mobotropolis, 1:04 PM, before the fun started**-

"A lunch outing huh?" Julie-Su said with a raised brow.

"Yeah. Amy though that we should relax and rest up for all the crazy tomorrow." Sonic smirked. "I think she's got the right idea, and my stomach agrees. This time tomorrow Tails and Shadow do their chaos voodoo and we're doing group hugs with the red man. Than we get back, throw a kicked death in the pants again party, and the mushy craziness plays out."

"Even though I hope everything goes so smoothly, we still shouldn't let our guards down."

"Way ahead of you Sal. If we do the lunch an chill, than we're all together and we can skip the rallying the troops stage of the plan in a pinch."

"I'd say I was impressed if I wasn't so worried smoke was going to shoot out of your ears any second."

"Har har Sal. So you girls comin or what?"

"Yeah. Just give us a minute to—"

"Sally. We have an emergency transmission from Shadow." Nicole materialized in the middle of the room.

"Patch him through." A screen appears with Shadow's stern face as the scenery races by behind him. "Shadow what's wrong?"

"It was a trap. Our mission in New Megaopolis, he knew we were coming." A surge of light engulfs Shadow and the screen goes white for a moment.

"Hey what's with the light show?" Sonic asked shielding his eyes.

"Fleeing two Metal series robots. Warping to stay ahead of Metal Sonic. No visual ID on the second. My team is separated, likely captured. I'm calling ahead to your position. I'm on route to New Mobotropolis." He warps forward again.

"We'll help you figure out where they are. What's your ETA?"

"Five minutes. They're a few minutes behind me by now."

"Sonic, go get everyone ready so we can—"

Sonic shakes his head. "Sal call the Chaotix, tell them to open the warp ring by the Lake of Rings, that's where we were meeting up with the others. When Shadow gets here, you take everyone to the Master Emerald and get Knuckles back. I'll keep the metal heads busy. I'll take um out if I can. You get all that Shadow?"

"Sonic. You can't fight them alone, that's a dumb idea!" Sally's face reflecting her disagreement.

"No Sal, it's the best possible way. You guys need Shadow to help Tails, and anybody else would just slow me down while I'm buying time here. And if ol egg breath is on the move, he's gonna mobilize some kind of action to hit the Master Emerald since he knows Knuckles isn't there. So you guys have to defend Tails and Shadow while they work their magic."

"Sonic's got a point Sally. This is the best way." Julie-Su placing a hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her. "This way when we finish with the ritual we can send reinforcements to help Sonic. Shadow, how far out are you now?"

"Two minutes and closing on the Lake of Rings."

"Good. Nicole let the Chaotix know our plan and tell the others what's going on please."

"Talking to the Chaotix now, the others are readying to go once you, Sally and Shadow arrive."

"You clever girl. Alright Sally let's get a move on." Julie-Su grabbed a stunned Sally's hand and headed for the door.

"Cool beans. Don't you ladies worry, I can outrun those lead toasters all day no sweat." Sonic grinned wide then shot past them heading out to play decoy.

"I wish he hadn't said not to worry."

Sally sighed. "I know what you mean. That phrase always leads to trouble"

**-Lake of Rings, 1:28 PM-**

"You girls are late. If you're done taking all day, the others are already setting up around Shrine Island. Tails and Shadow are already supersized and starting the transfer." Vector snarled as he spoke then stepped through the warp ring after them to see Mighty throwing a tank full of Dark Egg Legionnaires at a nearby drop ship as Rotor flew overhead in pursuit of another. "Looks Like the party's rollin without us." With that Vector pulled in the warp ring and charged into a group of legionnaires grabbing them and throwing them at each other. Using one as a shield, he bull rushed into them cutting a swath through the ground forces.

Julie-Su readied her pistol "Guess we just dive right in."

"Works for me." With that the two follow after Vector; Julie-Su shooting guns out of hands as she and Sally start planting legionnaires with kicks, throws and other forms of close quarters hurt.

Bunny begins firing on a large air battle ship fast approaching as Charmy flies Espio in camo-mode up to the deck. Once on board, Espio uses the distraction and heads for the bridge, knocking out the flight crew, and steering the ship down into a nose dive. He then smashes the control panel and makes a break for the deck de-cloaking. Bunny Flies down and picks him up off the deck before the ship starts picking up speed and crashes into the ocean below.

Antoine is slashing guns as Amy's hammer deflects laser fire and approaching legionnaires back at the enemies advancing on the shrine steps. Laser fire bouncing off of Turbo Tails and Super Shadow as they float above the Master Emerald, eyes closed in concentration, hands hoisted up over their heads. Amy and Antoine continue beating back the growing wave of enemies slowly losing ground until Mighty takes a wide side swing at the crowd with a drop ship cannon barrel, "Fore!" Mighty grinned at the two before throwing the barrel at an incoming drop ship forcing it down before it could reach the islands edge.

Charmy, Saffron, and Ray are doing fly by grab and drops on the legionnaires in hovering saucers, as Espio fights unseen up to the ship wrecked cover Sally and Julie-Su are fighting beside. Espio sees a group setting up a snipers nest nearby in the tree line and climbs up in ambush pushing them out of the trees, hitting them with their own guns.

**-The Great Forest, 3:00PM-**

Sonic spin dashes Metal Sonic from the side, taking off its left arm, and plowing it through five trees. Sonic slows his attack, swivels under it, and kicks up into its right side using his hands as a base. Before he can right himself, he is forced to push off into the air to avoid a low thrown rock which leaves him open long enough for Metal Sonic to land a heavy kick, "GAAAHHHH!" sending him smashing into the base of a nearby mountain with a low boom.

Sonic is wheezing for breath and clutching his stomach as he sits at the base of the mountain, rubble falling from the small crater around him. '…Magic… aura… or not… another hit like… that one… and I'm a goner, and they know it.'

*Well well well rodent.* The voice echoing from the slowly approaching Metal Sonic rang out. *Looks like you're at the end of your rope. So, how do you like my new nanite based robots, the improved Metal Sonic and Mecha Knuckles?* Sonic's attention shifted to the Knuckles robot walking over to him from the tree line, those black and gold eye glaring back at him. *He may not have been able to keep up with you and Metal, but his strength was quite effective indeed. And all the combat data I collected from you and the late Guardian, along with their regenerative nanite bodies. They are my perfect killing combo. Even their fire walls are perfect. You wouldn't even believe how much effort I put in to make sure that annoying AI of yours couldn't hijack them. She gave it her best shot through but, well; I'll just say she's been taken care of.*

"What!? What did you do to her!?" Sonic yelled angrily through haggard breath.

*Why, exactly what I'm going to do to you. Farewell rodent. It's been fun.*

*Initiating self-destruct,* both robots relay in unison.

'Damn it… I can't move. I'm almost completely numb.' DAAAAAAAAMMMMMNNN!

The shock from the explosion erases all other sound as a blinding light radiates seemingly miles.

**-Angel Island, 3:15PM-**

Two more large battle ships have moved in, as the legionnaires begin falling back to the islands edge. The ships hold their positions readying their forward guns to fire on the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix. Bunny and Rotor begin evasive maneuvers as they engage in a fire fight with the guns on the ship's bow.

"Okay, while Bunny and Rotor keep them distracted we need to make ready to down those ships." Sally thought for a moment then, "While they're prepping to fire their heavy weaponry we'll need to take them both out at once so that one doesn't fire early in retaliation."

"Espio, think you can sneak on the higher ship and slam it down into the other one?"

Espio grins and bows to Julie-Su as if enjoying the gesture. Then he looks up, "Charmy."

He signals to him for pick up.

Charmy flies down and grabs his hands. "What's up?"

"Special delivery round two; aim for the higher one and when you let me off head to the far side of the lower ship for pick up."

Charmy smiled. "Gotcha." He flew to the battle ship from high above, landing the now concealed chameleon right on top of the bridge and headed for the pickup area. Espio made it into the control room easy enough and began disabling the flight crew but the captain spotted him in infrared with his electronic left eye and tackled him. As they rolled around on the floor, Espio's hold keeping him from speaking, the remaining flight crew watched on confusedly. Espio used that time to put the captain to sleep, then finished disabling the crew; but not before one managed to pull the emergency alarm. Espio had planned to pull it anyway so that the legion had time to abandon ship. He then used the controls to swing the ship down at an angle towards the other and destroyed to controls. He slipped out right as security came in and found his mess and started carrying the wounded to the escape pods. Espio made ready to jump to the next ship as they collided but was surprised that the second ship was already moving away so quickly and was only grazed lightly before the one he had sabotaged began to nose dive into the ocean as the last had done. Espio was now seconds from crashing into the Mobian Sea and decided to jump and fan his arms out to slow his fall some and maneuver away from the plummeting ship. Rotor who had seen him de-cloak after the near impact of the ships had pursued and caught him at the water, Espio's shoes skiing lightly on the surface. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Rotor headed straight up trying to make it back to the island fast.

Mighty had walked over to a downed drop ship near the edge. "When a plan fails, use the direct approach." Mighty uses a gun barrel for a handle leaving imprints in the steel as he whips the small warship into the frigates flight path, smashing into the starboard side of the ship, and ripping into the haul. The ship is on the verge of exploding as the drop ships engines catch fire and the intermeshed mass begins losing altitude. All the escape pods manage to lift off as the destroyed frigate hits the water, exploding on impact despite the slowed decent from three of six remaining engines. Mighty makes a show of wiping his hands together as Espio and Rotor land. "Not as effective as I'd thought it'd be, but I'll take it. Now all we need is some food and this can still be an awesome day."

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" A boom followed by a loud crash erupts from the ground by Shrine Isle.

"What!?" A second boom and the sound of trees snapping like twigs.

Sally eyes go wide in horror. 'By the Walker… No!' "Sonic." Sally can only watch as Super Sonic floats down to the creator where Tails lays looking up in shock; Super Metal Sonic and Hyper Mecha Knuckles pursuing the downed Shadow. Sonic's cold red eyes glaring at Tails as he goes into a free fall at Super Sonic speed. Tails winces away and a loud boom and heavy light erupt.

"…I'm… alive?"

"Yeah? Me too."

Tails opens his eyes. "Knuckles!"

Hyper Knuckles is holding Super Sonic's fists having caught him in his decent. "Sorry it took so long little guy, needed a little extra juice for this fight. I'll handle this. You go help Shadow get back on his feet."

"Right!" Tails got up and flew off to the now echoing fight going on over the jungle.

"Alright Sonic, since you've gone and went off the deep end." Knuckle grip tightens on Sonic's hands drawing a slight wince. "Looks like I've gotta knock some sense back into you." With that Knuckles swung Sonic around a number of times rapidly and flung him into the airspace over the island, then teleported above him. With a punch forcing a sonic boom, Sonic screams like a fallen meteor into the Mobian Sea.


	7. Chaos VS Order, All of Mobius Shakes

Chapter 7: Chaos VS Order, All of Mobius Shakes

**-Above Shrine Isle, 3:35 PM-**

Just as the towering rush of water shot up from the impact, Super Sonic appeared before Knuckles.

"As fast as you are, you'd think it would have set in by now. Now that I'm back your world cleanse is cancelled." Hyper Knuckles eyes, like radiating amethysts glared back at the cold blood rubies fixed on him.

"It is too late." A deeper tone of Sonic's voice seemed to echo over the original as he spoke. "I am now fully awakened, and your return is irrelevant. You are now an obstacle, and I will remove you from the path of this world's peace along with the boy who dares think himself our master."

"You're wrong on two accounts goldilocks." Sonic's eyebrow rises reflexively at the comment. "He is not our master nor does he fain to be. He is the peace keeper between us and for the world; and we are his protectors."

"Your attempts to use peace to lull me fail you Wielder of Chaos. Our time in harmony has led to the constant destruction of our world. Even though this devastation suites you, I will not suffer these imperfect beings to mar this world any longer."

A large shock wave reverberates from over the Ice Cap zone in the distance, shaking the air and the island below as it rolls through; everyone at the edge of the island still fixed on the two beings floating above them.

"I see. You care nothing for the lives of the innocent. You can't see their pure hearts because you're so focused on their flaws or mistakes. Well that's your third mistake. You're not fit to pass judgment on the boy or anyone else on this world with your eyes closed. And as Guardian of this world I will protect him and everyone else from you, even if I have to use force to make you understand that."

Knuckles and Sonic disappear as a new string of concussive booms explode forth from flashes igniting across the sky, the air pressure forcing everyone on the ground to drop low or get knocked off their feet. The collisions stop as Sonic lands a kick to Knuckles stomach. Knuckles grabs Sonic's leg with his left hand before he can separate and connects with a blow to his jaw shooting him down toward the ocean as he teleports above his flight path and grabs him around the throat with his right hand before driving him down through the water slamming him into the sea floor, the rock underneath buckling and shattering away multiple times. Sonic then curls his legs up to his stomach and kicks up so fast into Knuckles gut that he is forced out of the water in an instant on the edge of a tidal wave, that's heading for the shore of Downunda. Before he can free himself from the inertia of the kick and water with a teleport, Sonic zooms in next to him having moved through the water undisturbed and spins quickly sideways connecting a kick under his chin sending him down through the sand leaving a half mile crater on the beach. Sonic then encircles the tidal wave countless times per second pressurizing it into what looks like needle of water as he brings it down on Knuckles at the center of the crater. A split second before impact Knuckles, punches up into the ocean spear hitting the still circling hedgehog through the point of the needle like a bullet being fired from a gun. The force of Sonic passing through the highly pressurized ocean water caused it to explode like a hydrogen bomb propelling the two further in their respective directions; Sonic careening into space as Knuckles crashes through the earth as if headed for the center of the planet.

**-Angel Island, 3:40PM-**

"So what do we do now? All we'd do is get in the way at this point." Mighty says looking off toward Downunda.

"We go where we can be useful. Knowing Robotnik, having failed to conquer Angel Island and get the Master Emerald, he's probably mobilized against New Mobotropolis. It makes the most sense considering we're all away from the city." Sally said with worry.

"You think something's wrong with Nicole?" Rotor said as he began trying to contact her with his suit. "Nicole, can you hear me? Nicole? Nicole!"

"I thought it was strange that Lien Da wasn't here leading the attack if Robotnik wasn't coming himself." Julie-Su interjected.

"You think this attack was a diversion? Then that means he's really done something to Nicole; and without her the city's shields will be offline." Sally's face grew dark. "Okay, we'll need to split into two groups. Group one will consist of Julie-Su, Mighty, Bunny, Espio, Antoine, Ray and myself. We're going to the frontlines to join the Royal Guard. With Geoffrey and Hershey missing and Commander Prower at Fort Acorn, Elias will be alone leading the city's defense. Group two's Vector, Amy, Charmy and Saffron will go with Rotor to Freedom HQ and guard him while he fixes whatever Eggman's done to Nicole. Vector, open a door to Acorn Castle please. I just hope Robotnik hasn't managed to rebuild anymore of his Egg Fleet then he sent here."

"No prob." Vector removes the warp ring from his wrist and opens the door. As group one passes through the sounds of explosions and laser fire can be heard in the background. "Good luck. Try and save some for us."

"You wish." Mighty and Espio laugh as they pass through.

Vector smiles and grabs the warp ring. "Okay let's see what's up with the digital babe so we don't miss all the fun." Vector opens a new gate and they pass through arriving at Knot Hole to find a chapter of the Dark Legion marching toward them. "Damn, looks like the fun is comin' to us."

"Big mouth." Amy said turning toward the approaching force. "We'll handle things out here Rotor. Just help Nicole alright."

"Gotcha. Be careful guys. I might be a while."

"Don't sweat it. At least now we can do more than sit around waiting." Vector smirked as they charged.

Rotor went inside and sat at the computer in the lab. "Don't worry Nicole; I'll have you back to your old self in no time."

**-Downunda Shoreline, 3:40PM-**

Knuckles stops his descent by teleporting back up to the surface. As soon as he appears Sonic tackles him at top speed; flying low scraping Knuckles along the sand and rocks as they enter the forest. Sonic keeps aiming for trees and hills as Knuckles punches him in the side of the head causing the two to plow into the ground. Knuckles gets back into the air by punching Sonic down making a fissure. Sonic erupts from the ground behind Knuckles and hits him with a spin dash pushing him up into the upper atmosphere heading north-west. Knuckles rolls off the comet like Super Sonic just outside Mobius' orbit. When Sonic breaks his spin dash Knuckles teleports behind him and catches him in a bear hug before nose diving back toward the surface. They end up over the southern peninsula of Yurashia near the Dragon Kingdom screeching straight down, covered in flame from reentry. Knuckles breaks off at the last second driving Sonic through a large mountain splitting it in two. The following quake caused a mass avalanche, knocking the snow from the entire mountain range. For a few moments nothing happens as the cloud of debris and snow swirls about the chasm between the now twin spires. Sonic shoots out from the clouds above and smashes Knuckles in the side knocking him through a mountain top and into the center of another forming a cavity half way through its center. Sonic pursues Knuckles but can't find him in the crater. With a flash Knuckles appears in front of him and grabs his leg, throwing him the rest of the way through the mountain He then teleports ahead slamming down on him with both hands clenched, rocketing him into the forest at the base of the mountain range. After the mushroom cloud of rocks, trees and dirt clears Sonic is floating at its epicenter looking worse for wear, but not as much so as the mountain range that they'd half destroyed already.

'This is taking too long. By the time I stop him half the planet could be destroyed. Need to take a new approach.'

The two made ready for round two and then began colliding at high speeds, attacks bouncing off one another as they fought sporadically. The vibrations were starting to shake the mountains as the trees below toppled over from the pressure of the rending shock waves. Knuckles hit Sonic in the gut sending him through a mountain crashing into the ocean by the cliff face.

'Maybe I can drain his energy away and change him back. But how? I can't focus long enough to start, and even then he'd attack me before I could even make a dent. I need to do enough damage to immobilize him, or at least slow his down.'

Sonic then shoots up form the water and kicks at Knuckles but is grabbed and dragged along the crumbling mountains before being swung like a hammer through the mountain with the hole through the center. Knuckles releases Sonic causing him to fly into the rock face behind the now falling mountain. As he lets go of Sonic, Knuckles catches the falling half of the mountain over his head and flies above the clouds. Sonic rises into the air looking for his opponent. Knuckles then aims the mountain point down and flies behind it propelling it into an unsuspecting Sonic. The hits between Sonic and the rocks below wasn't even a split second apart. The explosion caused by the force of the impact tore a five mile chunk out of Yurashia's southern peninsula dropping it into the sea, ocean water pouring in to residual space. The resulting quake destroyed the rest of the mountain range and a portion of forest at its base. It seemed as if the whole of Mobius had just shaken. The ground was riddled with fissures branching out of the newly ocean covered chasm.

Knuckles had pushed it all the way until just before contact with the ground, teleporting away at the jolt of hitting Sonic. Now hovering high aloft in the clouds he has begun slowly drawing chaos energy from Super Sonic. A few seconds pass as he feels the energy slowly dissipating little by little, until all of a sudden the whole mass of it is on top of him. Before he can look up Sonic has already fired down on him, heels extended in a vertical drop kick sending Knuckles speeding head first through the water and into the solid rock below like it were styrofoam Knuckles had managed to avoid planting face first and now lay at the bottom.

'Okay, I know I'm doing damage since he didn't follow up his attack. But I barely had time to syphon any energy… And it's hard for me to draw out since all the chaos energy he absorbed turns into what's essentially concentrated ring energy. Looks like I'm gonna need a hand to dispel his super form.' Knuckles then began to meditate, not sure how long the lull in battle would last.


	8. The Battle for New Mobotropolis Rages

Chapter 8: Stall for Time as the Battle for New Mobotropolis Rages

**-Over the Islands south west of Soumerca, 3:53PM-**

Tails threw Mecha Knuckles down into Metal Sonic, crashing them into the sand bellow. As they hit a wave of sand erupts followed by an even bigger sand splash as Shadow connects almost simultaneously with a falling kick, resembling a shooting star. Tails was already focusing with the chaos force, lifting large masses of sand into the air, compressing them into high density glass spikes. Having created a large number of them, he hurled them at the enemies as Shadow teleported back into the air. The force at which the glass lances were thrown caused them to pierce the chaos hardened steel, pinning the mechanical duo to the earth under the sand.

"At least they're not as durable as us. But their constant regeneration is a problem." Tails finished with a puzzled look on his face.

"It's starting to be a real pain in the ass." Shadow placed both hands in front of him building up chaos energy.

"No! We can't use chaos energy as a weapon. If they can absorb it like we can, then they'll just get stronger."

Shadow reabsorbed the focused energy. "Then what do you propose? Because it's obvious that hammering away at these things is next to pointless."

"It's true, and I think you have the right idea but not the right weapon. We need to annihilate their whole bodies all at once so they can't regenerate. We need to think of a way to change the chaos force into something too different for them to absorb but concentrated enough to damage even our own stage of durability."

"Okay, so how do we do that?

"…I'm still working on that part. Changing the energy so they can't use it isn't that hard if you focus, but what to change it into is the problem."

"Well I'm glad to see your so on top of things but, you're going to have to put your theory on hold. Our friends have pulled themselves free of their restraints."

Shadow tackles Metal Sonic as it rises out of the crater only to have his foot grabbed by Mecha Knuckles who then takes off into the air and flips Shadow around into a choke hold from behind. Tails charges at Mecha Knuckles from above and swings down with both hands. Before he can connect however Metal Sonic spin dashes him from the side and smashes him into the sand bank. Metal Sonic then takes off for orbit and readies to fire itself down on Tails. Suddenly Mecha Knuckles crushing vice grip begins to loosen and Shadow is pulled free. Without hesitating, Shadow teleports into Metal Sonic's descent and delivers a spin kick redirecting all that momentum onto Mecha Knuckles, putting them down again for the moment. Tails flies back into the air.

'Tails. Can you hear me?'

"Knuckles? Yeah I can hear you." Tails looks around. "Where are you?"

Shadow looks on a bit confused. "You get a few loose screws from that last hit?"

'I'm in Yurashia I think.'

"Yurashia! So this is telepathy then?"

'Yeah, but that's not important right now. I've hit a snag bringing Sonic out of his crazy, and if we want a planet left to live on after he's stopped then I'm going to need a quick hand.'

"Sounds like you guys have been destroying Yurashia."

'And a lot of Downunda.'

"I'd like to help, but that's half a world away. And we kind of have our hands full still."

Shadow deflects a Metal Sonic spin dash away from a distracted Tails and teleports out of Mecha Knuckles rush. Tails then dives in kicking Mecha Knuckles to which Shadow follows up with another kick straight down before engaging Metal Sonic in a series of blocking collisions at high speeds.

'Shadow, its Knuckles. I'm talking telepathically'

'I'm not a fan of this method of conversation.' Shadow finally lands a hit dropping Metal Sonic into the ocean leaving a tower of water behind.

'Sorry. Look, I need to barrow Tails to save Sonic. After we've drained his energy he should be back to his old self. Then after a stop off at the Master Emerald to recharge, we'll tag in on the techno twins. But I need you to keep them distracted until we finish here and arrive back to where you are. Think you can manage a game of endurance keep away?'

Shadow dodges a swipe by Metal Sonic as it comes blasting out of the water. Shadow grabs Metal Sonic's leg and flies full speed and warps right above Mecha Knuckles. Using Metal Sonic as a hammer, he knocks it into the ground and spins around twice throwing Metal Sonic like a missile after it before charging into a follow up.

'Fine, just make it quick. These things have already started to wear us down. I don't know how long I can give you.'

'Tails, Shadow is going to keep them busy for now. I'm making a portal to the airspace over my location. When you pass through be careful. Sonic is catching his breath and waiting for me to resurface. I'll attack him after you pass through so you can get your bearings.'

A circular portal opens up before Tails showing a different cloud line. Tails passes through as Shadow is racing Metal Sonic, exchanging blows in the background.

**-Make shift Base Camp outside New Mobotropolis, 3:50PM-**

Laser fire flies about the battle zone as the Dark Legionnaires' high powered beam weapons mingle with the shock pulse weapons of the Royal Army creating a myriad of dancing red and green lights. The Royal Guards, the half of the Royal Army present in New Mobotropolis, are being directed by Sally, Julie-Su and Antoine who are pushing the front lines.

"Alright men! Move behind any cover you can find. Mighty and Bunny are dealing with their tanks and drop ships. I want all officers to lead their men right behind them. Provide as much cover fire as you can and press the line with them."

A loud roar echo's from the men and is resounded by others, spreading across the troops. Julie-Su and Antoine lead their officers back to the line as Espio and Ray return from Castle Acorn.

"How's Elias doing?" Sally's face masks the concern in her tone.

"Not very good I'm afraid." Espio looked down. "The shot he took injured a few of his organs pretty bad. Doctor Quack is preforming surgery on him now. We'll have to wait and see."

Sally's eyes glaze over a bit. "If we'd gotten here sooner, we could have prevented this."

"We can't think about things we can't change now Princess. We need to stay focused and let the Doctor do his Job while we do ours."

"I know you're right." Sally takes a deep breath. "So, do we have any word on group two at Knot Hole?"

"Not yet. No sign of Nicole yet either. They might have run into trouble."

"That's not good. We might be pushing forward but we're outnumbered three to one and they still have a lot of heavy artillery. No explosives yet though. The only good news so far."

At that moment a messenger ran up and kneeled before Sally. "Your Majesty, I bring word from Fort Acorn."

"Is Commander Prower leading some of the Mes Braves Battalion to reinforce us?"

"I'm afraid not any time soon Ma'am. Commander Prower is currently repelling a large enemy force at the fort right now."

Sally sighs and nods at the expected news. "Understood, I need you to head to Freedom HQ and get me a status update on the situation over there."

"Yes Ma'am." With that, the soldier leaves immediately.

"It looks like Eggman is trying to make sure we can't get Nicole up and running again by cutting the power supply." Espio said with an irritated frown.

"Not to mention cutting off our reinforcements. But Commander Prower will be fine on his end. It's the main force here that's going to make or break this battle. We need to cripple their movement somehow. If we can do that we may be able to buy time for the others to get Nicole back online." 'I just hope she's not gone for good. I don't know how we can win this battle right now without her.' "Espio, I have an idea only you might be able to pull off. But it's going to be very dangerous and way behind enemy lines."

"So the usual sneak job huh?"

"Kinda. I need you to take out their central communications tower. That should stifle their Commanders orders long enough to gain some ground. And hopefully the confusion caused will allow us to disable more of their troops."

"Alright I'll head out now. Ray head over to where Mighty is." Ray nods and flies ahead, "The faster we act the less fortified that place is." Espio turned and headed off.

"Grab a bomb pack and detonator from the supplies officer. And be careful. It's likely Lien-Da is using that area as a base."

Espio only gave a thumbs up before vanishing.

**-Front Lines outside New Mobotropolis, 4:09PM-**

Mighty runs up and grabs the treads of a moving tank and whips it like a Frisbee along the front of the enemy lines, taking out dozens. As troops close in on Mighty, whole squadrons firing at him; cover fire from behind and Bunny flying overhead makes their aim useless with panic, giving him enough time to punch into the ground sending fissures forward; resulting in large numbers of enemies falling in or dropping their weapon and fleeing. The resulting terror Mighty instills in the enemy forces bolsters moral and both Julie-Su and Antoine press forward gaining ground in the ensuing pandemonium.

Bunny sets down beside Mighty as the two take a breather after the end of the second heavy armor wave. "Mah stars, to much more'a this an I'ma blow a fuse."

Mighty takes a deep breath. "Well, all we can do now is keep pushin' and hope we win before we fall on our faces from exhaustion."

"Mighty!" Ray calls down as he lands.

Mighty flashes a tired smile. "Hey bro, what's up?"

"M-me and Espio have a m-m-mission."

Espio appears. "Sorry to cut your breather short guys but we need a hand. I got orders from the Princess, and I need you guys to cause a ruckus to get as much attention as you can. If I succeed the enemy should be thrown into confusion and then the army can deliver some heavy damage."

"I'm guessin' we'll see the fireworks from here?" Bunny chuckles.

"Alright then, I guess we'll just push this brake back then." Mighty sighs and then smiles. "Okay, let's go piss somebody off."

Bunny heads back into the air as Mighty walks through the cover of the front lines, picking up a large piece of steel plating off the ground and begins advancing toward the enemy with it like a shield. A large group of Legionnaires charge at him on foot but are disburse by Bunny's beam weapon. As cover fire rains in from both side of him preventing any flanking attempts, Mighty turns his shield aside momentarily and begins tearing enemy cover out of the ground with one hand, throwing it on top of those behind it one after another. Bunny also flies from area to area using her cybernetic arm to rip away cover, letting the Royal Guard light up the exposed enemies.

With a majority of the attention on the collapsing enemy center line, Espio and Ray take off flying as high as Ray can take them. As they approach the tower above the observation deck, Ray drops the camouflaged Espio right onto one of the watchmen. Immediately after the first guard is out, he moves in the direction the first came from and takes out the second patrolman and the next.

"Okay Ray, coast is clear. Stand by here and if I'm not back in twenty minutes head back without me. I'll likely have needed to reroute through the ground floor if I'm late. But don't wait around. If that happens I'll meet you back at base alright?" 'I hope.'

"Y-yeah."

Espio then opened the hatch and headed inside. As he climbed down into what looked like the armory, Espio systematically knocked out the soldiers listing supplies and hid their bodies. 'Sorry, no time to worry whether you lot are going to survive this or not.' Espio finishes off the last of the inventory takers and heads for the next hatch only to see an officer with a cybernetic visor climb out. Before he's seen Espio leaps up and sticks to the ceiling. 'Damn inferred vision.'

"What? Where in the heck are those lazy supply officers. If I find them goofin—"

Espio landed behind him as he moved forward, hitting and catching him mid-sentence. After hiding him as well he moved down through the barracks, taking out the few men inside, and into the large communications area at the base of the tower. A group of officers were gathered around a massive array of computers, and at the center was their Grand Master and field Commander, Lien-Da. 'Looks like Sally called it. There she is, top bitch herself. It'd be nice if there weren't so many officers with eye implants. Alright, ten in all so-'

"What in the Infernos is taking Vardin so long getting those final numbers?"

"Incompetent fool."

"Give it another minute and—"

"Silence!" Everyone froze as she spoke. "Xial, go see what's taking so long and report back. You have three minutes."

"Yes Grandmaster."

'Looks like I better start with this one and work my way through to Lien-Da and that computer. Got to hurry, only five minutes left. Don't want my ride to leave without me.' With that Espio leapt into the open room, instantly neutralizing the officer moving in his direction as he landed on him.

Lien-Da grabbed the pistol at her side and began firing at Espio. "It's the Chameleon. Shoot him!"

'Doesn't look it, but I guess she has implants too.'

Lien-Da's words rousing her confused subordinates, they all reached for their weapons. However by the time most had, Espio was already on them, taking out two in a hand stand flip using his legs to split kick them off into the walls. He then pushed off the ground and threw two kunai while in the air, damaging Lien-Da's gun and the officer next to her closest to firing. As he landed and rolled into a springboard kick pushing off of two more, who'd stepped in to shield their leader, sending them crashing into Lien-Da. As he flipped back and landed in the center of the remaining five, he threw kunai into the barrels of their guns causing three to explode. The two who had hesitated to fire were dealt with, one by summersault kick and the other whose shoulders Espio had landed on as he swung down behind him using momentum to fling him into the wall with his feet. The entire combination had taken all of seven seconds with only Lien-Da having fired a weapon successfully nine times.

'That's enough exercise for one day… or not.' As he had started walking for the computer Lien-Da took a swing at him, grazing his left cheek. "I really don't have time for this."

"Too bad, I've got just enough time to kill you. Aren't you the lucky boy?" She then steps forward with a left. As her punch is redirect Espio moves to hit with a right straight but stops as he sees her rolling along his redirecting hand and knee's him in the stomach. He braces at the hit but doesn't manage to dodge her hands gripping his left arm, and she throws him over her shoulder straight down at her feet. She then tries to stomp down on him but he rolls over onto his front and uses his right arm and legs to push of the ground to plant a kick in her chest with enough speed to send her slamming into the console behind her. The twisting attack had dislocated Espio's left arm but had put Lien-Da's lights out.

'Not much time left, gotta hurry.' Espio uses the nearest wall to pop his shoulder back into place, stifling a loud yell at the surge of pain. After he had finished wiring the bomb to the computer he began his mad dash for the top. He arrived just as Ray was lifting off.

"Hold that flight."

"You m-made it!"

The two took to the air and Espio flipped the switch starting a chain reaction of explosions from the base up. In seconds the whole tower caved in on itself and the out cries of the Legionnaires were only eclipsed by the cheers of the Royal Army.

Mighty is standing with his make shift shield on the line looking up at the falling tower with a big grin. "Vector's totally missing all the action."


	9. For Honor and Duty

Chapter 9: For Honor and Duty

**-Outside Freedom HQ, 4:58 PM-**

"Phew, all this exercise is wearin' me out."

"You wanted action so zip it!"

"Man oh man, what's eatin' you?"

"What's eating me? Lasers were eating me! Just look at my dress. It's ruined."

"Sheesh, sorry I asked." Vector walked to the main entrance. "Charmy, Saffron., you guys good?"

"Yeah, we're good."

"Good. Okay you guys are on watch. Keep your eyes peeled for wave two. I'm gonna see how Rotor's doin'. Figured he'd at least a caught the tail end of that brawl."

Amy pushes by them fuming a bit. "Well I'm getting changed while we have some breathing room. Sonic isn't gonna see me like this if I can help it."

Vector shakes his head while Charmy and Saffron look at each other and chuckle. Vector moves through into the lab to see and hear Rotor's hands moving across the keyboard like a madman. "Rotor, you still working in here? What's the holdup dude?"

"I can't find her."

"What?"

"I can't find Nicole! She's not anywhere. I've checked and rechecked ten times."

"How can she be gone?"

"I don't know. All her logs for today are gone too. I've tried everything I can think of."

"What about the shields for the city?"

"I've been trying to hack that too but all control for the city's nanites have been locked by Nicole. Without her it could take a few days to hack into."

"Shit, we're workin' with borrowed time right now if the big ass quake that hit earlier was any indication. So can we do anything more here if we gave you a little more time?"

"No. Since I can't find Nicole, we are better used at the front lines helping the others. We should pack up and…"

"Guy's, another message just arrived from the front." Charmy and Saffron's facial expressions foreshadow their words.

**-Front Lines outside New Mobotropolis, 4:36 PM-**

"That's it, run ya two bit critters, makes taggin' an baggin' more fun!"

"All unitz, advance! Press ze attack while zey are confusing."

"Ya mean confused Sugar-'Twan?"

"Oui, zat is what I have said non?"

"Get a room later you two." Julie-Su cracks a smile. "Right now we have—"

"AHzHHHzRGzzG!" Bunny is hit by some small electrical disk and right after her arm and legs begin to short out. The overload sends her into a nose dive and just as Mighty was about to catch her, her bionic appendages explode. The shrapnel hits Mighty's left arm as he tries to spin around to shield himself. Julie-Su and Antoine hit the deck avoiding more than a few scratches. They look up to see Bunny on the ground unconscious with only her right arm remaining. Her body is lacerated with cuts from the shrapnel and badly damaged from the fall. Antoine's mouth is open as he runs to his wife but he cannot voice any words. He scoops her into his arms and looks to Julie-Su.

"Go! I'll hold our men here and try to keep them back. Get her to the medical unit and tell Sally what's going on."

Antoine gives no answer as he turns to run back to the main base area. 'Hold on ma love, I will save you.'

As Antoine is leaving Julie-Su turns to Mighty and then back to the lines. 'The moral has shifted, we have to brace or we'll be overrun.' "All units fall back and reform the line. Dig in and prepare to defend!" On her orders all who are pressing the attack begin to return to their fortified zones and begin repelling the now advancing enemy. Julie-Su and Mighty take cover behind the line as a medic runs up when Julie-Su waves her over. Immediately she begins trying to stop the blood loss as Mighty grits his teeth. "How's it look."

"The shrapnel has pierced a main artery. If I removed it here he would bleed out. We need to get him back to the city for surgery."

"Mighty, head back with the medic and get patched up. Can you walk?"

"Yeah just… ugh a little dizzy's all."

"Good, just keep your head down and make for the base camp."

"Roger that, and be careful out here." With that Mighty begins his trip back toward the city.

As Julie-Su moves back up to the central part of the front, Espio and Ray move in on foot having landed well behind their own lines to avoid incoming fire.

"What's going on up here? We just passed Mighty and he looks thrashed, and where are the others?"

"Right now we are practically everyone. Bunny's likely critical, Antoine is taking her back to get treated and report to Sally how screwed we are. Mighty was badly injured trying to save Bunny and the Knot Hole group is busy fighting on their end. Without the shield… all we can do right now is hold the line as best we can and hope to slow them down as much as we can." With grim looks on their faces the two grab rifles and begin firing along with Julie-Su into the advancing Dark Legionnaires. Julie-Su ducks down to reload, 'Knuckles, please hurry.'

**-Base Camp outside New Mobotropolis, 4:41PM-**

Antoine has given Bunny to a medical team, who is now moving her to the hospital inside the city, and just finished his dire report of the front to Sally. Before Sally can even respond to the news she sees several medical personnel carrying an unconscious Mighty towards the city as well.

"With both of our big guns out we can't press the attack. Our men were getting tired but now they're demoralized too. And just when we had the upper hand; I've already sent most of the guards here to the front as relief but, after what's happened, the troops I had wanted to rest will have to go back out early."

"I am sorry ma Princess, if I had not let my guard down-"

"You couldn't have known what they were going to do. And right now all we can do is head to the front and fight so that she and everyone in the city will be safe until we dig ourselves out of this mess."

As she finishes speaking Antoine jumps at her and pushes her out of the way of a laser bolt. The two return to their feet quickly and Antoine begins deflecting laser fire away from Sally.

"How did they get so far?"

"Zey are a stealth unit maybe, here to kill you Princess. You must escape while I hold zem here."

"I won't just leave you here alone Antoine."

"I will be fine here while you find ze guards. Zen you can elp me after."

Rather than distract him she agrees, "Stand strong commander. I'll return with backup soon."

Sally leaves trying to find the sparse remainder of Royal Guards. She was not able to see the wound in Antoine's stomach from behind. His quick thinking had saved her life but had left a burned and bleeding hole in his lower left gut. The adrenaline has numbed the burning pain of the injury and Antoine charges into the enemy slashing and cutting down the momentarily stunned Legionnaires. As he slays them and deflects as much fire as he can, shots graze and make partial contact. A shot hits his right shoulder as he withdraws his blade from an enemy and he is forced to switch to his left hand. He leaps at the closest enemy and impales him through the stomach as he spins him around to use him as a shield. He then removes his sword and throws it into another enemy before taking the beam pistol from his fallen meat shield's belt and guns down more as he moves behind cover. He then runs out from cover and fire through the Legionnaires grouped together and kills all but the last six. Seeing his weapon is empty, he throws it at the closest enemy as he runs for his sword. He grabs it and turns charging straight at the remaining group that has gathered close together and formed a firing squad. He dodges and blocks what he can but there are too many shots and he can barely see. A bolt strikes his left leg as he reaches the line of gunman cutting down three more with a wide sweep as he falls to one knee. The last three move backward in front of him and take aim but are slashed as he pushes off with his right leg clearing the distance. Unable to catch himself after his last attack, he falls on his right side and rolls to his back struggling for breath. His eyes are growing dark from blood loss and pain now that the adrenaline is wearing off. 'I got zem all I hope. I cannot moving another step.'

"No… Antoine? Antoine!? Can you hear me? Don't worry, we'll get you back to the city and-"

"Non… ma Princess. I am afraid… zis is all I can do. I am finished… I can feel eet."

"You can't die on me commander." Tears form and run down falling onto Antoine's face. "You have a new wife and she needs you. I order you to hold on until we can-"

"I am… sorry ma Princess… Tell Bunny… I will love… her… always." His breathing stops and nobody moves.

"I'll tell her Antoine, I promise." She stands up and wipes the tears from her eyes. "Two of you take Commander De Colette's body back to the city and someone find Mina. I need a message delivered to Freedom HQ now. Everyone else prepare to follow me back to the frontlines. We will hold until reinforcements arrive, move!" 'Something is wrong. If Rotor hasn't fixed Nicole by now then either he can't or he won't have enough time too. The shields aren't up either. Even with the Knot Hole group we won't last much longer. Knuckles please hurry! We need you.'


	10. CMD Combo of Mass Destruction

**Hey guys, sorry for taking so long to update but college papers have been keeping me busy, and killing my drive to write anything. I'll try and not take so long between chapters… But I Guarantee Nothing!**

Chapter 10: C.M.D. Combo of Mass Destruction

**-Southern peninsula of Yurashia, 4:00 PM-**

Just as Tails exited the portal, Sonic detected his presence, and was already upside down above him, foot raised, about to slam him into the sea. Knuckles had teleported as Tails entered the portal and met Sonic with a double handed side swing firing him away. Sonic pulled out of the momentum from the hit and now hovered in front of his adversaries. "So boy, come to die? Killing your protector will be that much easier while he's constantly saving you; though it will lessen my victory in the end."

"You wish Goldie. Inexperienced maybe, but he's strong enough to make this fight way out of your favor." Knuckles ends with a snide grin.

"Your faith in the child is misplaced Chaos. He will only tarnish the brilliance of this, Mobius' last true war, our final battle." Sonics eyes close as the old one driving him shakes his head.

"Prove it." Knuckles pats Tails on the shoulder and they both makes ready to continue.

Sonic frowns slightly as Tails charges straight at him, avoiding the attack with little effort as he blocks Knuckles multiple teleporting attacks. Tails comes in again on Sonics blind spot as he's blocking one of Knuckles punches and swings down with a double axe handle. Sonic sees Tails reflected in Knuckles eyes and instantly uses Knuckles as a support to mule kick up into Tails' gut and push off firing him away into the sky. Having removed Tails for the moment, Sonic spins over Knuckles shoulders and plants a kick in his side launching him. Before Knuckles can react Sonic lands an arrow like extended kick to the chest from below and then rolls in the air above Knuckles, before inertia can catch up, and finishes with an axe kick. The hit comes with so much continuous momentum that at first Knuckles doesn't even seem to break the water's surface. It takes until he hits bottom, crashing down through almost a mile of sea floor, for a geyser like torrent of water to practically rocket up through the clouds and out of sight.

Tails finally manages to catch Sonic unaware and lands a kick across the side of his head. Sonic pulls up just before he hits the cliff side of Yurashia. As he flies up the cliff face Tails shoulder checks him into the solid rock. The two begin punching and shifting through the rock as if it was tissue paper. After minutes wailing on each other, the rock has fallen away and Tails has visibly taken a great deal more damage during the melee than Sonic.

"You are no match for me boy. You're barely conscious; Chaos is a fool to think that you are our equal."

"You're right; I don't have as much experience as you guys when it comes to fighting. And I probably can't beat you one on one. So I guess it's a good thing I was just distracting you" As Tails sentence turns into a smile, Knuckles wraps Sonic in a crushing sleeper hold from behind.

"Ggrrrraa. Damn you boy!" Sonic struggles to break free but the strength of Hyper Knuckles vice grip is not easily escaped.

'Now Tails, begin the syphoning process.'

'Right.' Tails focuses on Sonics variant chaos energy and begins absorbing it.

Feeling his strength draining, Sonic vibrates his molecules at the speed of light and passes through Knuckles, body and all as he vanishes from sight.

'Damn, I was hoping we'd broken his concentration so he couldn't do that.'

'Sorry, I wasn't fast enough. A few more seconds and he wouldn't have had the energy to escape. I did get a decent chunk of it though. Where ever he went, it was for breathing room that's for sure.'

'Now we just need to find him before he gets too much strength back. The good news is that he's way too arrogant to have gone far. The bad news is that he's too smart to be caught twice.'

'If we could figure out what kind of energy we need to use to do blast damage to a super form I might be more useful.'

'The only kind of energy I know of that has any effect is kinetic energy. We can alter chaos energy into kinetic, but making it strong enough to do serious damage is the problem. It's too bad we don't have time to think about it right now. I found Sonic. Wait for him to surface then follow my lead.'

'Got it.'

With that Knuckles warps to the sea floor and feigns an uppercut. On reflex, Sonic jumps up to avoid it. Knuckles then spins and uses his hands as springs to take off like a comet, kicking Sonic under the jaw, and shooting him into the sky atop a pillar of water. Tails comes hurtling across with a straight kick, sending him to were Knuckles is waiting, as he moves in for another follow up attack. Sonic manages to spin-dash off of Knuckles punch and use the force of the hit to bounce back into Tails, who can't react fast enough to avoid it. As Tails is sent careening off into the sky, Knuckles teleports in front of Sonic close-lining him and then again above him for a straight downward punch. The second hit grazes Sonic and the two begin exchanging blows; kicking, punching, blocking and dodging as they fall, slowly losing altitude, heading for the water below. Right above the water's surface Sonics foot and Knuckles fist collide full force, causing two enormous tidal waves to spring up behind them both heading in opposing directions. Immediately after their collision they begin fighting in stationary close quarters, not moving from that spot but firing attacks at each other at ridiculous speeds. Sonics attacks prove faster but Knuckles avoids what he can't block through his skill in heightened sensing. Knuckles makes up for the disparity in their speed by mixing in heavy blows with his speed jabs. Sonic is forced to dodge these as they are too strong to block. Deadlocked, the two fight, at what was once water level, each waiting for the other to make a mistake; the pressure generated by their attacks preventing the water from filling the chasm beneath them as if it were afraid to approach.

As Sonic and Knuckles' exchange continues, Tails has halted and hoisted the continent breakers into the air and has begun to spiral them into funnels compressing the hydrogen and oxygen. Once he feels they are strong enough, he fires them on a collision course for the two enthralled combatants below.

Sonics guard drops for a split second when he notices the attack overhead and Knuckles takes advantage landing a full force strike to the mid-section that actually implodes the air around the impact zone. The gravity field created from the implosion of air speeds up the pressurized tsunamis. As they connect, Knuckles warps to Tails and then miles away, as a pillar of soundless light fires up into space and rolls out across the sea and land, devastating everything in a ten mile radius instantly. Knuckles had miscalculated the reach of the attack and can only shield Tails from the brunt of the damage as they're hit by the blast.

Tails comes to floating in the sea. After a few seconds he remembers what's happened and starts looking around for Knuckles but realizes he's alone. At least he is for a moment, until a heavily damaged and bleeding Sonic floats down, eyes emblazoned with rage. Tails just barely reacts in time to defend against a spin kick. But before he can distance himself, Sonic grabs him by the neck and kicks him skipping his body across the waters surface. Sonic catches up to him and kicks him again as if leisurely kicking a rock on the ground. Tails ends up on a small piece of land, barely an island, off the coast of Yurashia. As Tails struggles with his bruised body to sit up, the lights are turning out fast and Sonic is now standing over him. Tails closes his eyes and a shock wave booms out for miles. Tails opens his eyes as he fades to black and sees Knuckles holding Sonics unconscious blue ragged form.

'Man that was a pain in the ass. And now they're both sleeping like everything's great.' Knuckles sighs "Looks like I'm dropping these two off at Angel Island and helping Shadow with the wonder twins by myself." 'Shadow, how are you holding up?'

'Open a portal to your location now!'

'Damn, not even time to change my batteries.' Knuckles opens the portal and the second it's open, Shadow and both Metal Sonic and Mecha Knuckles come barreling through in one big heep. As soon as they hit the water Knuckles warps over Mecha Knuckles and delivers a right hook sailing the robot off toward the continent. Shadow takes the advantage of the distraction and spin-dashes out of Metals grip before connecting a side kick to its head sending it after Mecha. "No rest for the wicked huh?"

"Nor for us." Shadow is still catching his breath.

"Bet you'd let them if they called a time out."

"I thought this was the time out."

"For you maybe." Knuckles opens a portal to Shrine Isle and picks up Sonic and Tails. After placing them by the Master Emerald and returning he closes the door.

"How much energy do you burn opening those?"

"Compared to teleportation? A lot."

Shadow stands back up straight, "You know, I was kind of hoping you guys were doing better over here than I was."

"So was I. Been alive about an hour, already dead tired."

Shadow cracks a small smile, "So what was with that massive tremor and the light show a few minutes ago?"

"Would you believe a really big water balloon fight?"

"You're kidding right?"

"Only about half so actually. …Well, breather's over, looks like our dance partners have put themselves back together again."

Shadow lets out a half sigh, half wheeze. "Why won't they just die already?"

Knuckles cracks the knuckles on his hands and then his neck, "Don't know, let's go ask um."


End file.
